IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 70

social-networking media, neither
the subject nor the image-taker may
have any meaningful relationship
with anyone holding the image. The
absence of such a relationship means
the image-subject has no reasonable
means of contacting an image-holder
to discover their intentions and either
consent or object to them. Distribution
of images in a manner that denies the
image-subject control over the ways
in which an image of them (and the
information it contains) is used is a
moral harm because the image-subject's autonomy is infringed. To the
prima facie moral harm is added the
harm of impotent redress.

BWV Ethics in Practice
BWV technology has changed
the camera surveillance dynamic.
Does this present new ethical challenges or simply reconfigure current ethical challenges? How might
the theoretical issues discussed
above play out for real?
The fact that camera surveillance
equipment can be easily worn and
that improved battery technology
enables such equipment to be used
for an entire patrol shift, has extended
the ways in which police can use
camera surveillance.8 Private security
companies, particularly those providing security at nighttime economy
venues, similarly are choosing to use
BWV.9 Citizen appetite for the spontaneous capture of images is already
apparent from the widespread use of
camera phones. Affordable BWV
extends this capability. Connectivity with wireless technology extends
exponentially the ability to distribute
the images taken, either in real time
or subsequently.
What are the ethical implications of this changed dynamic? As
a tool for social control institutions,
the claimed benefits of BWV are
similar to those claimed for CCTV
8

See for example http://www.hampshire.police.
uk/Internet/advice/Body-Worn+Video+Devices.
htm (accessed Feb. 23, 2012).
9
See for example http://www.maccommercialsecurity.co.uk/body_worn_surveillance_systems.
htm (accessed Feb. 23, 2012).
70

or still photography surveillance:
a deterrent to crime and a means
of capturing evidence about crime
being committed (thus realizing the
purpose of policing in relation to
public peace preservation and the
investigation of crime). Encounters
between police and public can be
filmed and this serves both as evidence of what the citizen did and
said and of what the police officer
did and said. Potentially the record
will be more accurate than notes
written subsequently; less vulnerable to the interpretation and partial
recollection of the note-taker; less
open to dispute from the subject of
the notes. These are obvious attractions.10 Where the police are investigating a suspected offence and so
are enforcing the law, the moral theory of policing provides a basis for
justified image-taking even though
it causes moral (and actual) harm.
But where BWV makes a significant difference is in empowering
individuals to challenge immediately
the justification for image-taking.
Not only can police officers wearing
BWV transmit real-time images of
patrol activity to a central receiving
station: the individual being imaged
can engage in a real-time debate
with the image-taker about consenting to be imaged. BWV extends
the camera surveillance capability
of the police officer. It also extends
the range of ethical decisions that
the officer will confront during any
given policing activity. As well as
being confronted with arguments
about an individual's consent to
being imaged, officer mobility
between different categories of public, restricted, and private space will
require real-time protocol-based
10

Claims that BWV reduces police patrol bureaucracy by negating the need to make contemporaneous written notes (http://www.hampshire.police.
uk/Internet/advice/Body-Worn+Video+Devices.
htm accessed Feb. 23, 2012) fail to take into account the alternative bureaucratic needs that have
instead been created: namely, managing the images and the information therein, including being
able to retrieve pertinent parts of the video record
as required.

decision-making. If, for example,
an officer is equipped with BWV
which cannot be switched off by the
user - in order to preserve the integrity of the accountability function
of BWV - will the officer be prohibited from entering certain private
spaces because of this?
The citizen engaging with a
BWV-equipped police officer will
know that they are being filmed if
the technology is visible or declared;
the citizen can identify the individual
agent who is filming and not just the
agency; and the citizen will be able
immediately to challenge the legitimacy of and authority for the BWV
use. Is a citizen entitled to request the
camera be deactivated if the encounter is not one in which police are
directly enforcing the law?
Suppose the officer is speaking
to an individual in order to identify
whether that individual is a relevant
witness. Is the potential witness,
because they are not suspected of
anything, entitled to request the
officer to stop filming? What might
be the counter-claim?
Police recourse to otherwise
immoral acts is justifiable to the
extent that such conduct realizes
the fundamental end of policing,
namely the protection of other (justifiably enforceable) moral rights.
This justification seems to fit well
in circumstances in which a suspect
is being (covertly) photographed,
filmed, or recorded, but does it also
reasonably accommodate circumstances in which police are talking with an individual who may be
a witness but turns out not to be?
The appropriate focus is whether
the police are justified in causing a
moral harm (non-consensual filming constituting an intrusion of privacy) to the potential witness. Being
able to identify with filmed images
those individuals present in the area
but who are not witnesses and so are
eliminated from the enquiry may be
desirable but is it sufficient to warrant filming such persons against
their wishes? In the case of a suspected criminal the moral theory of

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

SuMMEr 2014

http://www.hampshire.police http://www.hampshire.police http://www.maccommercialse http://curity.co.uk/body_worn_surveillance_systems

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014